like a house afire

like a house afire

Very quickly or rapidly and with great force or intensity. Out of nowhere, this crazed bull started charging at us like a house afire! John hit the acceleration and started careering down the road like a house afire. I can't wait for you to meet Mark. I just know the two of you will get on like a house afire!
See also: afire, house, like
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

like a house afire

see under get along, def. 1.
See also: afire, house, like
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

like a house afire/on fire

Very quickly and efficiently; very well. The simile is based on how houses made of timber or thatch burn very fast, as was the case with the log cabins of American pioneers. Washington Irving used the expression in Knickerbocker’s History of New York (1809), “At it they went like five hundred houses on fire,” and Dickens is quoted as having used it to mean very well (“I am getting on . . . like ‘a house on fire’”) in a letter of 1837.
See also: afire, fire, house, like, on
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer Copyright © 2013 by Christine Ammer
See also:
References in classic literature ?
Here he came, like a house afire; I dodged: he passed like a flash, with my horse-hair coils settling around his neck; a second or so later, FST!
View in context
If you hate public restrooms, touching elevator buttons or doorknobs, and go through Purell like a house afire, then GERM FREAK'S GUIDE TO OUTWITTING COLDS AND FLU: GUERILLA TACTICS TO KEEP YOURSELF HEALTHY AT HOME, AT WORK AND IN THE WORLD defines you.
The Germ Freak's Guide to Outwitting Colds and Flu: Guerilla Tactics to Keep Yourself Healthy at Home, at Work, and in the World
Idioms browser ?
Full browser ?